POTTSTOWN — There’s a lot of money to be made, a lot of money to be spent and a lot of money to be won in downtown Pottstown this year as part of the “Hometown Holiday Celebration” planned by the Pottstown Downtown Improvement District Authority.

The money to be made and spent obviously involves shopping in local stores, but you probably want to know more about how the money can be won.

Well, there are two ways.

The first is an innovative raffle idea called “Five at $25.”

For $25, shoppers buy a raffle ticket at selected locations and spend $25 in four different participating downtown stores. Return the raffle ticket to the PDIDA offices on North Hanover Street with receipts attached and you’re eligible to win three prizes — $2,000, $1,000 and $500 in gift cards.

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“We are only selling 300 raffles to make the odds more enticing,” said Sheila Dugan, Pottstown’s Main Street Manager.

The drawing will be held on Dec. 22 at 6:30 p.m.

The second way to win money — $500 worth — is to enter the 2012 “Tree Challenge.”

A club, sports team or charitable organization decorates a tree, provided by PDIDA, before Nov. 28 and places it in a downtown shop window and someone stays with the tree to collect votes in December, all the way up until Dec. 22 at 4 p.m. when voting ends.

And no, you don’t have to stand there all day, you determine your own hours for voting, although it needs to be at least four hours per week.

Each vote is a $1 and the winner gets $500.

The money raised will help to fund Hometown Holidays activities.

(To enter, call Dugan at 610-323-5400 or e-mail her at sheiladugan@comcast.net)

Those activities are pretty extensive this year and include Santa and his elves arriving on bicycles; roasted chestnuts, discounted babysitting at the Babysitter’s Clubhouse, a tree lighting, a Santa’s village, breakfast with Santa and horse-drawn wagon rides.

It all kicks off Saturday, Nov. 24 on National Small Business Day,

In addition to many merchants having specials that day, so you can get the most for your raffle spending, you can visit Art Fusion 19464’s annual holiday art show, “The Secret Life of Trees,” and take a “Twelfth Night” tour of Pottsgrove Manor until 4 p.m.

Special events are planned for subsequent Fridays, Saturdays in particular and even two Sundays as Christmas draws ever nearer.

Dugan said other than the fund-raising from the two contests, the events are paid for out of the PDIDA budget.

But, Dugan said, sponsorships are available to provide additional activities and to allow PDIDA to spread its budget out to more activities later in the year, such as the return of the Schuylkill Riverfest in the fall of 2013.

• Donations between $5 and $100 will help add to the fun kids have at the Holiday Village. “Although Santa has bee paid, the amount available for coloring materials, reindeer food making and ornament decorating will depend on the money we have to draw from,” Dugan said.

“We are also looking for crayons as gifts from Santa for the children to go along with the coloring books he will be distributing,” she said.

• Christmas enthusiasts can also help by sponsoring one or more of the trees that will be provided for the Christmas Tree decorating contest. “We will be purchasing the trees for the local non-profit organizations to decorate and any help people would like to offer would be appreciated,” said Dugan.

• The horse-drawn wagon rides can be sponsored for $3,800. They will be conducted in two phrases, Friday nights in a “wagonette,” which is tighter quarters and more romantic, and on Saturdays, with a full-size wagon that will allow for more to join the fun, which includes a ride uptown and back to Smith Plaza where music and lights will adorn the night.

• Speaking of lights in Smith Plaza, multiple sponsors raising $1,000 will allow “the plaza to have much better lighting and very possibly music added,” Dugan wrote.

• A $10,000 donation would pay for “exclusive rights to a Smith Plaza Light Show,” said Dugan.

“PDIDA, along with our lighting company, would like to wow Pottstown with a unique music and light show, but the cost is far outside PDIDA’s budget,” she said. Envisioned is a light show coordinated with music, which is not being done anywhere else near Pottstown, as far as Dugan knows and “could become a great trademark for our holiday events.”

• Speaking of music, PDIDA is also on the hunt for choirs and musical groups of all stripes who would like to perform for a holiday crowd on Fridays and Saturdays.

Several time slots are still open and Dugan said she hopes carolers and other musicians will take advantage of the opportunity.

“Bottom line is this is going to be a great downtown holiday this year, but we’re looking for ways to make it even better,” Dugan said.

About the Author

Evan Brandt has worked for The Mercury since November 1997. His beat includes Pottstown, the surrounding townships and the Pottstown and Pottsgrove school districts, as well as other varied general topics like politics, the environment and education. Reach the author at ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
or follow Evan on Twitter: @PottstownNews.